ISLAMABAD, 25 May 2006 — Iran’s foreign minister arrived in Islamabad yesterday for two days of talks with Pakistan, while world powers gathered in London to discuss how to persuade Tehran to rein in its nuclear program.

Billed as a visit to promote trade, Pakistani media and analysts have speculated that Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki could ask Pakistan to act as a conduit for some kind of approach to the United States to defuse the row.

Mottaki will be joined in Islamabad today by Vice President Parviz Davoudi, and together they will meet Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf, who is regarded as one of the United States’ staunchest allies in the Islamic world.

“At the time when the United States is trying to isolate Iran, the Iranians are trying to expand their contacts to counter this policy of isolation and containment,” Talat Masood, a retired general and security analyst, said.

“Iran may also like Pakistan to use its influence and relations with the United States to act as a bridge between the two positions which are so wide apart.” Senior officials from UN Security Council’s five permanent members — China, Russia, the United States, France and Britain — plus Germany were due to meet in London yesterday to try to narrow differences of opinion on how to persuade Tehran to halt uranium enrichment. Western countries suspect that Iran was using its civil nuclear program as a smokescreen for developing nuclear weapons. Iran denies the accusations.

Iran bought centrifuges that could be used for enriching uranium on the black market from the scientist responsible for turning Pakistan into the only nuclear-armed state in the Islamic world.

Mottaki was due to see Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz first yesterday evening, and Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmoud Kasuri the morning after. Attending a joint ministerial meeting yesterday, Mottaki stuck to the economic agenda.

“We have enormous capacity and capability to enhance the cooperation between the two countries,” said the Iranian minister, whose government is hoping Pakistan and India ignore US pressure and sign up to a huge project to pipe Iranian gas to South Asia.

The international row over Iran’s nuclear program was bound to figure in talks, however. “Naturally that issue will come up for discussion,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said.

Pakistan opposes the use of force against Iran and advocates a negotiated settlement.